i really enjoyed this! the concept and plot were amazing, the characters were so interesting, and the writing was accessible. i wish the the characters were more flushed out and the plot was explored in more length. overall, it was a fun sapphic vampire story which was the precursor to Dracula!

there wasn't any portion of this book that disliked reading, though i have mild hang up about the ending. the pacing of this book is consistent, though depending on the angle you view it from, could be seen as slow, medium, or fast, depending on what you count as plot progression. The language is very accessible considering it's a classic, but not simplistic or dull. i think the dialogue, especially between carmilla and laura, is the standout. 

the plot began to trail off upon the introduction of the general, though the answers to the mysteries throughout the book were fully delivered (a bit too fully, you could say) in a very sussinct manner that, once finished, quickly pushed you towards the climax.

the ending was, in my opinion somewhat anti-climatic, but i understand that was the style of the time. i do think that in making carmilla more of a vague outline of a monster, rather than something present, both added and detracted from the climax, which really need more of her actually in it. 

i really found carmen maria machado's introduction to be informative as well as her footnotes, though they often leaned towards comedy.

she's totally right on one front however. there's no way that wasn't an orgasm.

 

i had a fun time with this book though i think if it were longer, it would've made the book much better. especially the climax.

I guess I’m eating my words about not liking the writing style of classics, huh?

I loved the writing style of this book. It was atmospheric and gothic, I loved the setting of the castle and the grassy hills and the ruins of the old town. I just pictured fog over everything anytime they were outside. Now I just wanna have a picnic at old castle ruins in the fog with a pretty vampire. (Sadly that doesn’t happen in this book but it could’ve). This might be my favorite classic I’ve read so far… it’s at least tied with Dracula, but I think it tops it. It actually got pretty creepy at times.

Was also a little surprised how explicitly sapphic it was, given when it was written. I was expecting it to just be homoerotic in the way that classics sometimes are, or overtly homophobic. I think it’s safe to assume that the combination of sapphic elements and vampirism was very intentional..  automatically villainizing lesbianism by portraying it as a ‘virus’ that you can ‘catch’, something that’s evil and scary… But reading it it isn’t actually explicitly homophobic. It’s all subtext. It could easily be read through a more modern lens, removing that subtext.

My only complaints:

•The racism. It’s only in one or two scenes, but it’s pretty bad in one scene especially.

•How naive Laura was, especially at the very end. She was supposed to be 19, right? How did she not connect the dots after the general’s story??? 😆

•It ended a bit abruptly, I felt.

•And lastly, I just wish we got more pretty atmospheric descriptions of the ruins. I was waiting the whole book for them to go there and when they did we didn’t get much :/ I would’ve liked more atmospheric descriptions in general, but at least we got some.

Overall, I’m really happy I liked this! I was starting to worry that classics just weren’t for me. Hopefully there are still more out there that I’ll love.

Ce fut un livre intéressant. Mais j’avoue que je m’attendais a plus… tout d’abord je me disais que les personnages seraient plus âgées mais aussi qu’il y aurait plus de… plus quoi. Plus de lesbianisme, plus de tension, plus de spice, plus de leaning… bref plus. 

Je m’exprime très bien okay! 

Going into this I expected an action-packed Gothic novella with lesbian undertones. What I got was a long, drawn out tale told in hindsight that was so predictable it was almost painful. 

Maybe it’s Le Fanu’s writing or the fact that it was written in the 1800s but it truly wasn’t at all captivating as I thought it would be based on other Gothic novels I had read from that time period. Sure, there were ancient schlosses secluded in the scenic countryside, a coffin filled with blood, and stark lesbianism however the novel didn’t provide much else.

It is, however, the commentary on suicide and it’s connection to vampirism that truly swayed my perceptions and left me feeling uneasy at the conclusion of this story.

Despite my opinions, I am happy to have finally gotten around to reading this and would recommend Carmilla to anyone. It is still a marvel of its time and deserves its flowers in helping lay the foundation for tales such as Dracula and Twilight to exist.